Richard Collard of Wheatley, captain of the commercial fishing vessel Crystal Blue, pleaded guilty to violating the terms and conditions of a commercial fishing licence and providing several false statements to fishery officers.

Collard was fined $6,000.

1522120 Ontario Ltd. of Wheatley, owner of a commercial fishing licence, pleaded guilty to violating the terms and conditions of its commercial fishing licence and was fined $1,500.

A statement of facts read in an Ontario Court of Justice Thursday detailed evidence that between February and March 2009, Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officers with the Lake Erie Enforcement Unit conducted an investigation into the commercial fishing activities of the commercial fishing vessel Crystal Blue.

The investigation revealed that the vessel was gill-netting in Chatham-Kent waters of Lake Erie and fishing out of the ports of Wheatley and Erieau.

The captain and company failed to retrieve the gill nets within eight days of being set and the captain failed to report to a conservation officer, as required, the lost gill nets due to poor ice conditions.

The statement of facts included the captain gave several false statements to the officers during the investigation.

Commercial fishing licence conditions permit gill nets to remain in the lake for a maximum of eight days during the winter in order to ensure excellent fish quality and to prevent gill nets from becoming lost in poor ice conditions.